Microsoft teases beginning of its post-Nokia smartphone era

Microsoft is set to reveal what may be its first smartphone offering since announcing it was ditching the Nokia brand in favor of Lumia for its flagship Windows Phones.

In a teaser posted to the company’s Nokia blog, Microsoft invited guests seeking “#morelumia” to come back to the page on Tuesday, posting a photo of what appears to be a curved Lumia device.

(Photo from Microsoft)

Microsoft completed its $7.5 billion acquisition of Nokia’s handset business in April. As part of the deal, Microsoft bought the rights to release basic Nokia-branded mobile phones for 10 years. Microsoft’s rights to the use of Nokia’s name in smartphones also had an end date, reportedly 18 months.

Tuula Rytilä, a senior vice president of marketing for phones at Microsoft, said in a blog post last month that the company would unveil a Microsoft Lumia device soon. “This is of course a natural progression as all devices that once came from Nokia now come from Microsoft,” she said.

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Welcome to Microsoft Pri0: That's Microspeak for top priority, and that's the news and observations you'll find here from Seattle Times technology reporter Matt Day. Send tips or comments to mday@seattletimes.com.